Device scan: Look inside a Medtronic PillCam with an industrial X-ray CT scanner

By Austin Carder, Lumafield

Since 2001, PillCam capsules have given gastroenterologists an easier way to examine parts of the digestive tract that traditional endoscopies and colonoscopies have difficulty reaching. The device also provides clarity when those procedures yield inconclusive results.

Originally developed by a company called Given Imaging and sold today by Medtronic, the swallowable camera has been used by over 4 million patients. The small bowel version captures between two and six frames per second as it travels through a person’s digestive system. That adds up to roughly 50,000 images over the course of its journey, which a GI physician then reviews to diagnose conditions ranging from Crohn’s disease to internal bleeding.

The capsule is only a diagnostic tool, and it’s not for everybody. Doctors suggest that patients at risk of getting the capsule caught in the digestive tract should stick with a conventional endoscopy.

With Lumafield’s industrial X-ray CT scanner and AI-powered analysis software, we can see how an entire camera system fits into something small enough to safely swallow.

At the top of the capsule, a transparent housing covers the camera. Inside, we find a three-element lens stack seated above the image sensor, surrounded by four LEDs that illuminate the tissue in front of the capsule as it moves through the body. Think of those like the flash on a normal camera.

Below the optics, two coin cell batteries supply power to the PCBs that handle both imaging and wireless transmission. At the base of the capsule sits the antenna, which sends images out to a recording device the patient wears on the outside of their body during the procedure.

It may sound simple, but that’s the point. A camera, lighting, a power supply, and a radio all fit inside a package compact enough to replace an imaging procedure that otherwise requires a scope, a room in a clinic or hospital, and a specialist to make it all happen.

Take a closer look at the PillCam scan for yourself below or here, and check out our previous scans of a Resmed AirSense 10 AutoSet CPAP machine, a Dexcom G7 continuous glucose monitor and an Ozempic pen.

 

Austin Carder is head of content at Lumafield, where he leads First Article, the company’s editorial publication, and produces Go/No-Go, a podcast on manufacturing, design, and the calls that make or break great products.

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The opinions expressed in this blog post are the author’s only and do not necessarily reflect those of Medical Design & Outsourcing or its employees.